CHENNAI: Avishkar Hyperloop, a 27-member student team from IIT-M, has become the only team from Asia to qualify for the Space X hyperloop pod competition 2019. The prototype of the pod was unveiled at IIT-M on Friday.
Hyperloop is a proposed fifth mode of transportation which will propel passengers at a speed of nearly 1,200km/hr using magnetic levitation of trains in near-vacuum tubes. The concept was first proposed in 2013 by Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Space X and Tesla Inc.
Sponsored by SpaceX, the hyperloop pod competition sees the brightest minds from around the world, present their subscale prototype pods demonstrating the technical feasibility of the hyperloop concept.
In this global competition, the final round (testing and evaluation of the actual prototype), takes place at SpaceX headquarters in California, the US, and the fastest pod wins the competition.
The young team comprising students from various streams and years qualified in the preliminary briefing round (where they presented an overview of the project) last year to become one among the top 21 finalists from over 1,600 teams from around the world.
Speaking about the competition, Mr Suyash Singh, Student Team Head, Avishkar Hyperloop, said, “The primary factor to decide the winner is the top speed achieved by the hyperloop pod in the run in the 1-mile long vacuum tube, installed at the SpaceX headquarters.
The design has to go through a lot of checks and scrutiny based on its feasibility, manufacturing possibility and its safety aspects.”
The pod developed by the Avishkaar Team spans about three metres in length and weighs around 120 kg. The team worked extensively on the structure, braking system, power system and propulsion system for months to achieve high speed.
